He liked it! ConFonz liked it! The jet-setting conference vet comes back refreshed from Software 2006. Here's his report, with some editorial ads to cut down on the defamation lawsuits.

Software 2006, Sand Hill's C-level conference for the decision makers in the Valley and around the world, was held at the Santa Clara Convention Center Tuesday and Wednesday. The event was a class act all the way around the block. The expo floor was more like a slick dance hall than a convention hall exhibit floor, and with all the free coffee, food, and schwag available, I sure hope I get invited to more C-level events like this!

[Alleged!] wife abuser Arjun Grupta was here to give a speech that was seemingly attended by either ass-kissing startups looking for VC, or morbidly curious Valleywag readers looking to see the man, the myth, the [alleged!] wife-punching fist. [Allegedly!] surprisingly, he didn't hit anyone during his speech.

Around the corner from Arjun's speech, the Open source panel on Tuesday threw down the gauntlet: "I believe all software companies who went into open source did it with their eyes open. Well, except for Sun." Ouch.

For the most part, the talks at the show were of the sort that any self respecting Wagger already knew about. "Leveraging Blogs, Web 2.0, and AJAX for business success?" Soooooo October 2005. But then, this stuff is probably all news to the C-levels, who spend more time slamming each other's dicks in bathroom stall doors than actually learning about their industries.

The real indication of just how well the software world is doing this year is the sheer volume of foreigners here to discuss outsourcing. Even the Indians where here to learn about how they can outsource their outsourced work to China. Soon, the Africans will be tackling the Q/A jobs even the Indians won't touch, like phone game testing.